The Napthine government hopes to transform the lives of vulnerable children in out-of-home care with a $128 million plan that will expand residential care beds and therapeutic placements and create a new electronic reporting system to reduce sexual exploitation.

The Abbott government quietly let through legislation that will end the freeze on the childcare rebate, leaving the Coalition searching for a new way to keep the payment at $7500 a child. The rebate, which is not means-tested and provides parents with 50 per cent of their childcare costs up to a total of $7500 a year for each child, is set to rise in July after the Coalition last week passed the amended bill in the lower house.

Families will be allowed to adopt children from a raft of new countries under an expansion of Australia’s intercountry adoption system.The Abbott government is also interested in streamlining visa processing and health checks for children from overseas in a bid to slash delays and burdens for families.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says he won't change pub and club trading hours because people should be able to "let their hair down and party". Queensland's government on Sunday released its draft plan to tackle alcohol-related and drug-related violence.

Euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke is facing a third inquiry that could lead to his being barred from medical practice, after a complaint that he promoted euthanasia for social reasons, such as not being able to play golf.

New South Wales is second only to Nevada as the most gambling machine-packed state in the world, according to a new report. The World Count of Gaming Machines report, released by Australia’s poker-machine lobby group, the Gaming Technologies Association (GTA), has found the total number of gambling machines in Australia increased slightly in 2013 to 198,418.

The attorney general, George Brandis, has declared “people have the right to be bigots” as he confirmed plans to remove sections of the Racial Discrimination Act while ensuring the laws were better able to deal with incitement to racial hatred.

Voter satisfaction with Bill Shorten has lifted slightly but the dramatic decision of assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos to step aside in relation to a NSW corruption hearing appears not to have hit the Abbott government in the past two weeks.

The federal government will hand $1.44 million to four Australian anti-slavery organisations to fight human trafficking, labour exploitation and to help women trapped in the sex industry. Justice Minister Michael Keenan will announce the funding on Tuesday to coincide with the international day of remembrance for the victims of slavery.

Children being held in immigration detention on Christmas Island have told a Human Rights Commission inquiry it is like "hell" in the centre. After struggling to get information from the Immigration Department about the wellbeing of children in detention, the commission launched a national inquiry into the matter.